JARHEAD 2: FIELD OF FIRE – The Blu Review

A Marine unit stationed in the hostile province of Helmand Afghanistan wilderness faces a harrowing mission as they try to help a fugitive woman reach safety from the Taliban in JARHEAD 2: FIELD OF FIRE.  Packed with intense action, thrills and the gritty reality of war, the all-new movie JARHEAD 2: FIELD OF FIRE is inspired by JARHEAD, the highly praised feature film that follows a naïve young recruit and his platoon mates from the intensity of boot camp to being deployed to a lonely outpost in a surreal desert setting.  JARHEAD 2: FIELD OF FIRE transports the action to the brutal battlefields and dusty villages of Afghanistan, where a band of Marines risk their lives to save a woman fleeing certain death at the hands of her Taliban pursuers.

Battle-scarred and disillusioned by the war, Corporal Chris Merriman (Josh Kelly) is put in charge of a unit whose next mission is to resupply a remote outpost on the edge of Taliban-controlled territory.  While driving through the hostile Helmand province, a Navy SEALflags down their convoy and enlists the unit on an operation of international importance: they must help an Afghan woman famous for her defiance of the Taliban escape the country.  Without tanks or air support, Merriman and his team will need all the courage and firepower they can muster to fight their way across the war-torn country and shepherd the woman to safety.  JARHEAD 2: FIELD OF FIRE is a thrilling action-adventure that celebrates the courage and patriotism of the men and women in the U.S. Marines.

JARHEAD 2: FIELD OF FIRE will be released on Blu-ray August 19^th but We Are Movie Geeks has already seen it!

The original JARHEAD had a satirical bent and was less about the insanity of warfare in the jungle than the insanity of inaction, boredom and frustration in the desert. JARHEAD was also directed by Oscar-winner Sam Mendes and had an A-list cast that included Jake Gyllenhaal and Jamie Fox. JARHEAD 2: FIELD OF FIRE is directed by John Michael Paul, whose credits include the TV quasi-sequels LAKE PLACID: THE FINAL CHAPTER and TAKEN: THE SEARCH FOR SOPHIE PARKER. It stars Stephen Lange, basically recreating his character from AVATAR (nothing wrong with that), actor Josh Kelly, who served three tours in Afghanistan and one in Iraq as an Army Ranger before starting his acting career mostly in TV, and Cole Hauser. It’s a cheaper-looking film featuring mostly hand-to-hand combat as opposed to large-scale battles or helicopter rescues, but the action is excruciating and relentless, and director Paul doesn’t spare the audience. If anything, he rubs our noses in the blood, sweat, and tears of combat. Bullets pierce bodies with sickening force and frequency, bones shatter, men die. JARHEAD is more in the mode of LONE SURVIVOR and more conventional in its tone than its predecessor and is a good, tough, satisfying war film.

JARHEAD 2: FIELD OF FIRE looks very good on Blu-ray, offering a sharp image that bolsters the film’s gritty intensity.   The movie is provided with a 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 transfer in the 2.40:1 aspect ratio. This is a nicely detailed and impressive image that leaves little to complain about. Visual clarity is very strong, revealing a great sense of fine detail. Close-ups are especially striking, highlighting every dirty pore and unkempt whisker on the soldiers’ faces. Depth is also impressive, bringing a life-like sense of dimension to the image. Colors adhere to a palette that favors browns, yellows, beiges, and greens, emphasizing the Afghanistan wilderness setting. Contrast is high but well balanced and black levels are solid and consistent.

The film is presented with an English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix along with a Spanish DTS 5.1 mix. Optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles are also included. Nuanced, spacious, and absolutely assaulting when it needs to be, this is a powerful and fully enveloping track.

The only extras are a pair of deleted scenes.

JARHEAD 2: FIELD OF FIRE will be available on Blu-ray^™ Combo Pack including Blu-ray^™, DVD & DIGITAL HD on August 19, 2014, including both an R-rated and Unrated version as part of the DVD Originals^™ line from Universal 1440 Entertainment, a production entity of Universal Studios Home Entertainment.  The film will also be available on DIGITAL HD two weeks early on August 5, 2014.

Despite some budgetary limitations, JARHEAD 2: FIELD OF FIRE is a solid action film and worth a purchase for fans of good war stories.